Shadows
by Ramuria
Summary: His life changed more then a shadow on a windy, cloudy day. Memories of three different periods in Kid's life.
1. Kid, Water, Monopoly

"I'm not going in there," the small boy said, his tiny fingers tightening around the black cloak his father always wore.

"Why not? Look, there's even a nice lady waving to you-"

"It's not symmetrical."

Shinigami sweat-dropped and tried to pry his son's fingers off of the black material.

"Now, now, Kid, we went over this last night. You have to go here; it will be good for you. Don't you want to become smart?" he asked in a singsong voice.

The child hesitated, staring at the school with his wary golden eyes.

"But…the other kids don't like me…" he mumbled almost inaudibly.

"Nonsense! I'm sure you'll have lots of fun! They even do art projects and you know you love drawing!"

"I guess…"

"Come now and be a good boy," Shinigami said, pulling Kid with him towards the large (from Kid's point of view) double doors (which happened to be one of the only symmetrical things in the area). "Hello. I've come to drop off my son for preschool. Pleased to meet you," the masked man said cheerfully.

The woman who had waved earlier bowed politely.

"Welcome. What would be your son's name?" she asked with a wide smile.

"Death the Kid."

Kid looked up when his name was mentioned, then quickly went back to staring at the floor.

"We're happy to have him here. Come along Kid so you can meet your classmates," she said a little too bouncily, grabbing the boy's hand and leading him inside.

Shinigami watched his son disappear with a little bit of sadness. It saddened him that Kid was growing up so fast…

Kid stood awkwardly in the blue rug, glancing at each of the different students in turn. The smiley woman had left some time ago.

"Hey, that's the son of Shinigami-sama," one of the girls whispered to her friend.

"I know. He's kinda creepy. What's up with his hair anyway? It looks so silly."

"I heard he isn't human," another boy said quietly.

"Why is he here then? I bet he just wants to show of and make us feel like we're not as good as he is."

"My dad said when he was born he killed his mother."

"_Really?_ That's gross!"

"I know. You should stay away from him. I bet he eats normal human souls."

"Stop trying to scare us," a fourth girl whined.

Did they think he couldn't hear them or something? If they knew he was a shinigami, then they should know that he had heightened senses, including hearing. Kid clenched his small fists as they all stared at him with fear plain in their eyes.

Why?

What had he ever done to them? To their parents? He'd barely even met anyone.

"U-Um…excuse me…could you not talk about me like that? It's not true…" he said hesitantly.

The other children looked at him with scared expressions. They all backed away.

For the rest of the day they ignored him. They wouldn't look at him, talk to him, or even listen to anything he said.

At the end of the day the rest of the students got picked up by their mothers, smiling and telling them what a good day they'd had. Kid could only stand there stoically. He had no mother to hug him and smile; someone who wasn't afraid to hold him. To speak to him.

His father was late.

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Kid sighed as he poured himself two glasses of water, watching as they slowly filled. The lights were off though it didn't seem to hinder his movement as he grabbed his pair of glasses and headed back upstairs to his bedroom. Perfectly symmetrical. He sighed in satisfaction as he passed each perfectly aligned picture frame.

Perfect.

Yet, there was something missing. He longed for the sound of other voices, to be able to know that there was someone else there except him. Instead of being so alone and empty.

Earlier that day his father and Death Scythe had tried to make him find someone to marry but none of them were symmetrical at all. It was so hard to find anything right these days…

The young shinigami dragged himself into his room and set one glass down on the closest nightstand and the other glass on the far nightstand.

Even if he had picked one of the many women suggested to him, they all would've been scared. They were always scared. Kid combed through his hair with his fingers in frustration which only reminded him of those cursed stripes.

"Gah! I'm hideous! Disgusting!" he groaned to no one in particular since there was no one around to hear him anyway.

No one cared.

After awhile I got over his depression and crawled into bed, flopping down onto the oft sheets and squishy pillow.

That night he cried himself to sleep.

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Kid looked at the game board; somewhat displeased by its imperfectness…it was all Black Star and Maka's fault. If they hadn't moved there pieces like that it would have been perfect!

"Yes! I'm buying Boardwalk!" Maka said happily as she handed kid the fake paper money with a wide grin.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Black Star objected loudly.

"Why not?"

"Because only the great Black Star can own Boardwalk!"

Maka hit him over the head with her book which somehow didn't seem to affect his wild hair. Kid sighed as he handed the ownership thingy to Maka. Why did he have to be both Realtor _and_ Banker? Oh yeah, Maka didn't trust Black Star and Black Star didn't trust Maka to not cheat.

"Kid, you're turn," Black Star yelled in his ear.

The shinigami rolled the two (thankfully, one would have been dreadful) dice and ended up with a double six. He'd wanted two fours, but this would have to do for now…

"Darn it Kid! Why do you get all the doubles?!" the "assassin" growled.

Kid moved his piece twelve spaces and landed on a railroad which he already owned. In fact, he owned all four which had also upset the pompous ninja.

"Darn it! How come I only own two properties?!" Black Star shouted.

"Hey, I only own six!" Maka countered.

"But you got Boardwalk!"

"Kid is winning! Look, he owns basically the whole board! And look at all his money!"

"Maybe you should both give up," Kid suggested with a smirk.

"Never!"

A few minutes later Black Star was stomping home mumbling about "cheating jerks" and "I'm the only one who should own Boardwalk…" Maka watched him go with a small laugh.

"Well, it was nice having you over Kid. Come back soon?" she asked, leading him to the door. Kid had stayed behind to help her pick up the asymmetrical mess Black Star had made when he "accidentally' flipped over the Monopoly board.

"Of course. It was a lot of fun, thanks for having me," he replied.

"Have you ever played Monopoly before this?"

The young shinigami smiled almost mischievously.

"Maybe once or twice."

As Kid walked down the streets to his own home, he smiled up at the laughing moon and twinkling stars. Liz was probably waiting for him to come back by now. Maybe Patty, though she was probably asleep by now.

His friends. The thought brought a smile to his lips as he strolled quietly along. People who weren't afraid of him and cared about him.

For the first time in a long, long time he thanked whoever it was out there that had given him such a thing as friends. Even Black Star.

* * *

I was just playing with this idea and thought I might as well put it up. The first section is really early past, the second is middle past, and the last section is the present. Basically the first will be sad, second kinda sad, and last funny/happy/cute. So I'm actually not finished with this story yet, got lots of ideas.

Please review, it makes my day =D I'd also really like to know if I should continue this one. If I don't get reviews, it'll go bye-bye

**Next Chapter: Towers, Trembling, Tarantulas  
**

_Ramuria_


	2. Towers, Trembling, Tarantulas

**Chapter Two**

Kid precariously stacked the last red block on top of his perfectly symmetrical tower. He had made the perfect pattern out of the beautiful blocks; symmetry.

For a few moments he simply stared at it, having nothing better to do for the moment.

With a loud crash the tower crumbled apart. The young boy was stunned into silence, his yellow eyes wide. A couple a boys snickered as they watched him.

"Opps, I'm sorry; I tripped," one of them mocked.

Kid's stare turned into a full on death glare, the air around him seeming to grow cold.

"How could you…you ruined the symmetry…" he said quietly.

"It's just a stupid tower. You can always rebuild it."

"Stupid?! It was perfectly symmetrical!"

"So what?"

Before the kid could say anything else the young shinigami had tackled him, both hitting the ground. The other preschoolers watched silently as the two battled it out. Kid punched the boy hard in the nose, causing blood to trickle out.

"What is going on?! Enough of this!"

The usually smiley woman pulled Kid off of the bleeding boy, shaking him slightly as she did so.

"Kid, you know better then to do this! What were you thinking?" she asked him.

"He knocked over my tower," the boy said simply as if nothing had happened, though his shoulders drooped a bit as if he were ashamed.

"Look what you did to him! We are going to have a talk with your father!"

He looked up sharply. His father?

"But…but you can't…" he mumbled.

"And why not?"

"He'll be upset with me…"

"That's the point!"

Without another word she dragged him out of the room, oblivious to the victorious smiles of the other children.

Kid watched their grins with an empty feeling.

* * *

"Kid," his father said.

The small boy refused to look at his father.

"_Kid,_" the man repeated.

Finally, he glanced up. He couldn't tell exactly what his father felt but he was pretty sure that the shinigami was angry with him. His normally friendly voice had gone stern.

"Yes, father?"

"I'm disappointed."

Kid flinched.

Not to far away his teacher stood with a frown.

"The other boy was bleeding, sir. Broken nose," she stated. "I would suggest a private tutor. Your boy doesn't seem to get along well with others. Especially because of his peculiar…condition."

Shinigami turned his head to the side.

"What condition?"

"Surely you have noticed his obsession with symmetry?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Is that peculiar?"

The woman stood, baffled at his reply.

"Yes…very unusual…"

Kid glared at her. How could she not appreciate symmetry?

"Then maybe if would be best if I got him a private tutor…"

"I would recommend it, sir."

Kid tuned out of their conversation, his father's words still ringing in his ears.

_I'm disappointed._

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It was dark. Cold. Kid squinted and tried to see _anything_, but there was nothing to see but the chilling darkness.

Normal darkness was comforting to him. He worked well in it and could use it to his full advantage against an enemy.

But this…

This was a frightening darkness. An engulfing pitch black that ate away at you. One in which he had to wonder what it was hiding in its depths or maybe just a few feet away.

A darkness he had never seen before. Or had he?

Desperately he reached out his hand, searching, looking for anything tangible. The was no one there.

He tried to call out but no sound came.

Then it hit him; this was too much like his normal life. In the dark with no one around to help him or hear him. Even his father was always away doing _something_. No one else…They all expected too much of him and never gave anything in return. Taking away until there was nothing left but darkness that loathed and hated everything around him.

The world was so imperfect. Humans were so faulty.

He despised them and their happy lives; a life he could never obtain.

* * *

Kid sat up abruptly, his golden eyes shining in the darkness. A calm darkness, not the one he had just seen. He shook his head once and sighed, trembling ever-so-slightly.

Was that what he really felt? Did he really hate the humans so much that it had created something that scared even him? What would he become if this continued?

Not wanting to ponder these thoughts, he closed those inhuman eyes and tried to block the image out of his head.

Yesterday…

She had looked at him with those fearful eyes, holding onto her child tightly as she watched him. The eyes everyone looked at him with.

That woman with her baby boy.

Kid had been sent on a mission to find out what was causing a ruckus in a rundown old town. A place hardly anyone ever went into of left. It had been attacked by bad souls and ravaged; buildings burned to the ground and the bodies of the dead lying around almost casually.

A few living souls had been scattered about and he had headed towards the nearest two. One of them was fading. Dying. The woman.

"W-What do you want here?" she had asked?

"I came to help you."

A sharp, quiet laugh.

"You came to late, little shinigami. Everyone here…we're all going to die. Every single one of us."

"I'll help you."

The woman smiled as she looked into his eyes, the tear streaks on her face glimmering in the dim light.

"Come closer, boy."

Hesitantly, he had taken a step forward, and then knelt down in front of her. She'd reached a hand out and touched his face, leaving a bloody mark there.

"You're scared of me," he said simply.

"If you knew what I knew…if only…you're naive, boy. What's your name?"

"Death the Kid."

"My child…he's going to die. You can see it, right? How both of us are fading? You saw when you walked in to this cursed place all of the bodies and no sign of any souls. They all just faded…just like us."

Kid stared at her and then glanced down at her sleeping baby. Its skin was covered in dirt and its tiny hands were clenched in its mother's tattered white shirt.

"What did this?"

"Humans. Weren't they all humans at one point? Them souls…those bad souls, is that what you call them? Even them witches…You're the only one whose not."

He remained silent as she looked at him with her intense blue gaze. She laughed dryly again.

"If you knew what you're capable of doing, Kid, you'd be scared of yourself."

"What would you know?"

"I was there…I've seen many more years then you. To many years…"

Her eyes suddenly went dull and her head lolled to the side brokenly. Kid froze. There was no soul. The baby's too had vanished as if it had never existed, leaving a hollow shell behind. All of the other souls had also gone from what he could tell?

How?

He clenched his fist.

"I'm no different then you…why do you treat me differently?! I have feelings the same as a human! What is it that…makes everyone so afraid of me? He finished quietly, eyes downcast.

Of course, he received no answer. She was dead. They were all dead.

The shinigami stood, moving silently out of worn down hut and back outside.

Humans. They were horrible in the fact that the judged to easily. A cause for that darkness inside of him to grow.

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Maka looked down at the thing on her desk with a look of horror.

"You've got to be kidding me…" she said hollowly.

"And now class, take your knives and…"

Both her and Tsubaki tuned out Professor Stein's words as they stared down at the wiggly bug. A tarantula. All eight of it's hairy legs groped about in the air helplessly as it laid pinned on its back.

Kid was sitting next to Maka and he stared at the thing with starry eyes.

"Isn't it beautiful?" he asked.

"Er…what? It's nasty," Maka said blankly.

"What?! It has eight legs! And if it would stop moving it would be perfectly symmetrical!" he exclaimed as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Black Star stared at it incredulously.

"Its nothing in comparison to me," he said.

"I feel sorry for it…" Tsubaki put in, looking down.

"Well! Right now it's the center of attention so…_It must die_," Black Star uttered, laughing manically.

Before anyone else could stop him he stabbed the spider in it's middle with his scalpel. The group was silent for a minute and then the knife slipped and cut of one of the bug's legs. The limb fell lifelessly onto the sterile table.

More silence.

Suddenly Kid tackled the blue haired assassin, sending both of the over the desks and onto the hard wooden floor. Black Star wheezed, winded. Kid glared at him.

"You ruined the symmetry!"

"Hey…it's just a…spider…" Black Star said as he got his breath back.

"It was a _symmetrical_ spider!"

Stein watched them with indifferent amusement, sticking his own knives in his desk.

"So what!"

"How could you say that?!"

"Well, if it's a fight you want, then let's go! I'll just prove how much better I am!"

Both stood, but Black Star tripped ungracefully as he did so, hitting his head on Stein's desk and with a comical drunken expression he collapsed on the ground.

Again silence.

"Ugh…that Black Star…" Make muttered as she looked at the dead spider.

Tsubaki laughed as she stood. Kid smiled himself as he knelt down to make sure his friend hadn't caused himself too much more brain damage.

* * *

lol that Black Star xD I don't think that last part was really as funny as I wanted it to be though : (

Yay, this story actually has a plot! Why are the souls mysteriously disappearing?

If you have any scenario you would like to occur in this story, let me know and I'll be happy to see if I can put it in

I was so happy with all the reviews I got :D Thanks goes out to lazyguy90, anonymous, midna235, catgirl9696, Nenena, geko-blackjack, dufhISWUFHski, and monkeybait for reviewing! It made me really happy and helped me update this as fast as I did!

Once again, reviews keep this story alive!

**Next Chapter: Tutor, Lies, Tulips**

_Ramuria_


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